EDF Energy response to UK Nuclear Regulator’s National Report into the safety of nuclear power stations

The Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR) today published its National Report to the EU outlining its review of the stress test programme undertaken by the industry following the events at Fukushima last year.

EDF Energy conducted stress tests of each of its eight UK nuclear power stations and this work is reflected in today’s report.

The ONR report concluded that: "The UK Licensees have completed adequate stress tests reviews in line with the European Nuclear Safety Regulators Group specification."

It also said: “Neither the reviews undertaken by the Licensees for the stress tests, nor the earlier national reviews has indicated any fundamental weaknesses in the definition of design basis events or the safety systems related to the stress tests to withstand them for UK NPPs."

“The ONR report concludes that the UK plants are robust to design basis events and safe to continue operations. We are an industry that learns from experience in order to improve safety performance and safety margins. As such, through our review we have identified ways to enhance further our current robust position and ONR has reflected this in its report. We are already implementing these improvements in line with the ONR’s expectations."

EDF Energy is committed to openness and transparency and has published the stress test reports for its eight nuclear power plants in the UK which are covered in today’s report. These can be viewed at: http://www.edfenergy.com/stresstest

In addition, EDF Energy has completed a stress test report for the EPR design proposed for nuclear new build in the UK, which confirms EDF Energy’s view of the robustness of this design in extreme scenarios. This is expected to be included in a future ONR report on non-generating nuclear sites in the UK.